Mike - Re. your Fatass strategy ...do it by heart rate.just pick a heart rate that suits your mood, however much you want to stress yourself. you either run or walk to keep the heart rate constant. this is the most efficient way to get thru it.you don't even need a heart rate monitor if you have paid attention to your body enough to go by feel.

Art- interesting, have never paid much attention to heart rate (at least not knowingly)- I do instinctively slow down when headed up hill- I'm sure that is somewhat related to elevating heart rate as you ascend

Dan Carter and I made it to Silver City, NM this past Saturday to catch a gig my father's band was playing at the grand opening of a new distillery/brewery downtown-it was a great excuse to drive to the Gila for some mountain running beforehand. Luckily, Eric Payne, an occasional BPL'er and online contact of mine for several years now, relocated to Silver City with his family and was up to lead us on one of his favorite running/training routes along a section of the CDT, just a few minutes from town. Saturday's run was about 3hrs. long with a fair amnt of climbing and some ice and snow thrown in the mix, along with one healthy sun break in a clearing along a ridgeline, overlooking the entire bootheel of southern NM down into Mexico. If you're ever considering moving to NM, don't, there's nothing to see or do here. ;-)

@Mike M. Are you running The Rut again this year? Dan Carter is registered, so you guys should connect at some point. I'm still trying to drag him into doing the ZT with us in April.

Eugene- my wife and I very came very close to moving to Silver City, still might one of these days :) nice pics!

I may be running the Rut again, but am leaning towards the Volcanic 50 which is about the same time. You can give him my email and I can certainly try to help in anyway I can

it's been too quiet for me, I tapered last week in anticipation of running our local Fat As 50k Saturday- I bagged that idea as I was still fighting a chest viral/hackshitup thingie, the weather was calling for 25-35 mph winds w/ rain so that sealed the deal

anywho last week was pretty much a bust, feeling better (less hackingshitup) so hope to get a good long run in this weekend

had a good week and finally feel like I'm over the flu (or whatever I had)

ran two 5.5 milers early in the week, it's a park near my work so I changed at work and ran- saves me from coming home and running out of daylight- it's laid out so there is ~ 1.4 mile loops, but it's almost perfectly flat. let me run much quicker than I usually do, a little under 9 min miles, which isn't fast, but fast for me :)

got two really good back to back 10 mile runs in the mountains Sat & Sun, ran it one direction on Sat and the opposite today- almost 3000' of elevation gain on the loop (a little more on today's run)

I have to give praise to my microspikes, the trails are almost solid ice and I can run like it's dry ground- best $60 I ever spent

"me (Art) and John V. are still in ... especially if there's a medal at the end :-)"

I actually made a Joshua Tree CRHT 2013 tile but never finished glazing/firing them in time for the run. I'd still like to get them out to everyone though; in person at Zion or shipped (if people want to pay ~$5 shipping....).

Hi guys. Just checking in. I've been training sort of quietly and sporadically, between remodeling and other things. Been getting in 4 runs a week with about 30-40 miles total. I'm doing 3x 7-10 miles, and 1x 12-15 miles. The shorter runs include about 1500 feet of climb, with the descent being the same. Longer runs are closer to 2000 feet of elev gain.

This was feeling pretty good until the instep/arch of my left foot began bothering me just recently. The trails I've been on are very much hard pan with uneven surface and I've been running them in my Pure Grits. I don't think the shoes are giving me enough buffer on these surfaces, although I do love them in the forest and loose sandy stuff. Anyway I'm trying something with a little more support. After chatting with Eugene and reading some reviews I'm giving the Salomon Sense Mantra's a try. Found them for cheap. So far I've just hiked about 20 miles in them but I like the feel. Outsole is noticeable more substantial than the Pure Grits (and has great traction!!) but the shoes still feel really nimble. I had some Cascadia 7's for a while and they just felt too tanky. I took them back to REI (they gave me a rash of shit about it, return policy has changed FYI) after 9 months.

I've gotta see the doc about my foot, actually I have to find a new doctor now that I've moved. I'm not really sure what's up with the foot, but I have a sinking feeling it might be a little stress fracture in there somewhere. Taking it somewhat easy until I get the word.

Jacob -- the Sense Mantras are good shoes, except for me the heal is too narrow (not internally but externally where the tread meets the trail). I think the Sense are designed for toe runners, and I must admit to landing on my heals a bit on the downhills.

The Pearl Izumi N2 Trail have a fairly wide heal by comparison, are fairly light weight, maybe a couple mm more drop than the Sense though. A couple of people in this thread seem to like them.

Yes the Cascadias are tanks, but one of the few shoes you can run 50+ in and your feet feel fine at the end.

Hey Art. Thanks for the tip on the Pearl Izumi N2. I'll see how the Salomon's work out, and if not I might give those a try, or at least try them on if/when I come across some. I def heel strike on the downhill :) Hasn't bothered me hiking, but I have not run in them yet.

I got blisters from running in the Cascadias. I think my feet are too narrow and were slopping around in there; it just felt like a mess plus klunky. I definitely prefer a shoe with a narrow, close fitting mid foot.

Regarding the headcount, it's still my plan to be there. I had to pick between Zion or the Bob, so I want to do this.

A bountiful couple weeks on my end. Last weekend I got in a solid 5.5hr. long run with some solid climbing on the route, kept it steady and honest paced, but didn't kill myself- Dan joined me for part of the run, and McCarthy's 'Blood Meridian' on audiobook for the remainder (brutal!). Recovery was almost immediate last week, got home and ate real quick, showered, and was out playing with my kids on the bike that afternoon. I take that as a good sign. Yesterday afternoon I ran a 4-mile trail loop 5x (~20 miles), just plugged along jamming to some Pantera and stopped once at my vehicle to change shoes for one of the laps. Other than the major GI issues I was having, I felt really good and never really waned on my pace. I think my stomach troubles on yesterday's run were unrelated to using Tailwind nutrition, something that I've been using for long runs for the past several weeks, but rather a nasty bottle I failed to clean thoroughly. My race is in 3 weeks, so I'm trying to shake off the few doubts I'm having about my nutrition after yesterday's episode, especially this late in the game. Still haven't quite figured that shit out.

This weekend there is an inexpensive local ultra multi distance event going on (Sugarloaves Ultra), so I may utilize that as my last long training run and give myself a full 2 weeks to recover and lick any wounds before Black Canyon.

In the next coming weeks/months, I'm looking forward to: A) Black Canyon 100k (*ready to see new trail, and also take a week or two "off" from running), B) Ride my mtb again, haven't had any extra time to ride the bike on the trails C) Catch up on a few loose ends unrelated to running D) March 8th, 3rd Annual Sierra Vista Trail Runs race that we're putting on! E) ZION in April!

*@Dave U. Nice numbers on the squat! Take away the "3" in 385 and that's about where I stand. ;-)

I'm coming for sure and looks like a buddy of mine (and his wife) are coming- they plan on staying a little longer and seeing some of the sites close by.

What are your guy's thoughts on campgrounds?- we can camp at the main campground in Zion or as Dave C mentioned in the other thread at the East entrance (private campground). His thought was that it made it more attractive (more likely?) to finish the entire distance if we camped at the east entrance vs bailing at the 33-ish mile and getting a shuttle to the campground. I have no idea what the campgrounds look like or how they compare.